


All This Dystopia Needs Is a Blue Door

by kattahj



Series: Scenes from a New Ham New Fam [2]
Category: The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: Babies, Demisexuality, F/F, First Dates, Movie Night, Pansexual Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24043282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kattahj/pseuds/kattahj
Summary: Becca is going to movie night with Kelly, in an attempt to relax, and makes new discoveries about both of them. (All stories in this series are part of the same continuity, but standalone.)
Relationships: Kelly Aldrich/Becca Gelb, Sam Eliot & Becca Gelb
Series: Scenes from a New Ham New Fam [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722175
Kudos: 21





	All This Dystopia Needs Is a Blue Door

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Phantom_traveler, e_keshet, and ShotOfPatron for beta reading and other suggestions!

Becca was already halfway out the door with Kelly, when she heard Eden’s cries inside and made a beeline back to the bathroom.

Sam rolled his eyes upon noticing her return. “Really?” he signed, as well as he could, holding a baby wipe in one hand and Eden’s feet in the other.

“Maybe I shouldn’t go.” She’d been thinking so from the start. Eden’s cries tugged at her soul like an invisible umbilical cord was still keeping the two of them attached . Not to mention, the thought of movie night in the current situation was like a parody of normalcy.

But Kelly wanted to, had said it would do both of them good to get their mind off things for a while, and Kelly had spent so much time fretting over how to fix things that she was practically fraying at the edges. She deserved anything that could make her feel better, if only for a few hours. Sam had agreed too. Of course, Sam taking things too lightly was par for the course.

“She just needs a change,” he signed, pulling her out of her thoughts. “I’ll put her to bed afterwards. Relax. Go see the movie.”

Eden was most displeased at this interruption in the butt-wiping. She cried harder and kicked her little feet until Sam returned his attention to the task at hand.

“But I…” Becca said, to no avail. Sam had his eyes on the baby.

Kelly, leaning on the doorway, said, “I think she’s fine. Babies cry.”

“I know. I know.” Becca touched Sam’s shoulder to make him look up. “There’s breastmilk in the fridge. Warm it up, but don’t overheat it. The pacifiers are in the top drawer, but if you can put her to sleep without it, that’s better.”

Sam sighed, not even bothering with a response as he threw the wipe in the trash and took out a new diaper.

“He’s got it covered, Becca,” Kelly said with pointed patience. “Though she’s got some pipes on her, I’ll give her that.”

The room was barely large enough to accommodate all three of them, but Kelly wiggled in and tickled Eden’s hand until the little fingers closed around hers and the cries faded to mere whimpers.

“Hi, honey,” she said. “I’m your Auntie Kelly. You remember me, don’t you? I heard your very first cries. You’re even louder now.”

“Doesn’t bother me,” Sam said with a cheeky grin, then scooped Eden up into his arms and kissed her cheek. 

Kelly laughed. “Perks of being deaf, huh?”

“Blissful silence,” he agreed.

“I guess it’s good that you three have the house to yourself, now.”

“I miss everyone, though,” Becca said. Not being crammed with four other people into a single room ought to have been an improvement. Instead it was just another thing that proved hard to get used to.

Kelly nodded, her previous smile gone. After a moment, she asked, “And the sleeping arrangements?”

Sam’s and Becca’s eyes met. So she had noticed the way the queen size in the bedroom had been replaced by two singles, with the crib in between.

“It’s great,” Becca said, in a voice that sounded unnatural to her. Her hands shook as she signed along. “Sam likes having the crib close with the open side towards him, so when it’s his turn he can just stick a hand down there and feel if Eden wakes up, and I like having some distance, so when it’s my turn I don’t have to wake Sam up, and when it’s not my turn I can put some earplugs in and sleep through the night. It’s really perfect for all three of us.” Babbling. This was babbling. Shut _up_ , Gelb! “Anyway, we’re going to miss the movie. Come on! Bye, Sam! Bye, Eden!”

She practically dragged Kelly out of there and into the street.

Kelly was quiet at first, hands stuffed in her pockets and eyes fixed on the ground ten steps ahead. Two houses down the road, she said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah,” Becca said cautiously.

“Are you and Sam… okay?”

“We’re fine. Why wouldn’t we be?”

“No reason.”

They walked past another house, which had an overgrown rosebush with twigs that seemed to reach out through the fence like greedy little, starved fingers.

“We’re not sleeping together,” Becca snapped at last.

Kelly looked up with an apologetic expression, colour rising in her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

“Well, we’re not. We were never…” But she couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth, even to Kelly. “It was just a one-time thing. I love Sam, but I don’t think of him that way. And he _definitely_ doesn’t think of me that way.”

“I was wondering,” Kelly admitted.

“You and half the town, huh?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just with Sam being, you know, gay, and I wasn’t too sure about you either…”

Becca stopped short and grabbed Kelly’s arm. “Wait, what?”

Kelly’s eyes widened. “I’m _really_ sorry.”

“You thought I was gay? Why? Just because I’m friends with Sam?”

“No, it’s just that you never seemed that into guys, and I thought, maybe…” Kelly resumed walking with hurried steps, so that Becca barely caught the mumbled, “Wishful thinking, I guess.”

Wrapping her head around the implications of that took the better part of a minute. _Kelly?_ Harry’s Kelly, who, okay, had stopped being Harry’s Kelly right after they arrived in New Ham, but who had seemed well on her way to become Will’s Kelly for a while there.

Once Becca put her brain back in working order and scraped her jaw off the ground, she had to run to catch up with Kelly.

“Are you saying that _you’re_ gay?” she asked, breathless.

“Not… exactly.” Kelly’s face was crimson now. “I mean, not entirely. I mean, I guess ‘pan’ is the word? When you’d be okay with any gender? That’s what it’s called, right?”

“I had no idea.” Should she have? The second best friend she’d ever had, and the second who had come out to her. Was this a pattern?

And if so, how did she feel about that pattern?

“I don’t really talk about it. It’s one thing to kiss at a party, or on a dare, but when it’s real….” Kelly bit her lip. “So that would be a ‘no’ from you, huh?”

Kelly. Beautiful Kelly. Kind Kelly. Kelly who had been the most coveted girl of West Ham High, but who had proven herself capable of so much more.

And Becca?

This was like some freaking _Notting Hill_ moment.

“I don’t know,” Becca said, her heart falling. “Honestly, pretty much all of my hook-ups have been disasters. I have to know someone pretty well before I even start thinking of falling in love with them, and by then it’s usually too late. So instead, I’ve just… tried to fake it ‘til I make it.”

Kelly nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Sorry for making it awkward.”

But she looked pretty dejected as they reached the church and slid into a pew.

_Don’t you know that you’re Julia Roberts here, Kelly?_ Becca wanted to ask, but there were people all around and no chance to do so. _You’re the movie star. I’m just the nobody living with my funny roommate behind a blue door, except my door isn’t even blue._

_I’m the girl who was so fucking stupid I can’t admit it even to myself, and ended up in trouble and had to use my best friend as a cover-up._

_What would you even want with me?_

_No-one should make you look so sad. Least of all me._

Movie night was still going strong, even after the coup. The pews weren’t quite as full, perhaps, but a substantial number of people gathered every Friday, to watch some frothy feel-good movie with no relevance to their life whatsoever.

But all Becca could think about was Kelly next to her. How she wanted those blue eyes to sparkle, that wide mouth to widen further and show those big white teeth.

What it would feel like to kiss that mouth.

During Anne Hathaway’s makeover, which was a scene that would never stop being irritatingly wrong in its approach to beauty, Becca let her hand drop on top of Kelly’s, curling her fingers around the palm and squeezing gently.

Kelly looked up, startled, and met Becca’s gaze.

Becca smiled. After a second, so did Kelly, and then turned her eyes back to the movie screen, although she looked as though she’d just been given the best birthday present in the world. Her thumb caressed Becca’s wrist.

After that, Becca had no idea what happened in the movie - even though she had seen it three times before.

Not until the credits rolled did the girls let go of each other’s hands. Kelly gave Becca a shakey smile and stepped into the aisle without a word, arms crossed tightly over her chest as if something in there might otherwise escape

They left together, miles apart from their chatting and laughing peers. It took fifteen minutes of walking before the crowd had dissipated, and only then did Kelly ask, “What was that about?”

Becca shrugged. “I started thinking. I think, maybe I want to give it a try.”

“What happened to needing to know someone well?”

“I think we do know each other well. I mean, you’ve already seen my genitals.” Becca winced at the sound of that. “Not that I’m inviting you to see my genitals again. I’m not there yet.”

“You don’t have to be,” Kelly said softly.

She looked so shy that Becca took her hand again, in both of hers.

“I liked this part,” she said. “And I think I could like more. I mean, this is kind of a first date, right? So it wouldn’t be untoward if we, you know…”

“Kissed?”

“Yeah.”

Kelly leaned in slowly, as if she was approaching a skittish animal, and their lips met.

It was a gentle, light touch, like a flutter of butterflies matching the ones in Becca’s stomach, and then it deepened a little. Becca ran the tip of her tongue along Kelly’s lips, taking in their softness and the faint scent of moringa soap from her skin.

So different from giving yourself enough liquid courage to stand someone ramming their tongue down your throat.

Becca reached out to caress Kelly’s cheek and run her fingers through that long hair.

For so many months, she’d been tired, from the pregnancy, and hard work, and the general madness of their existence. She’d forgotten that it could feel like this.

Perhaps she had never known.

Kelly let go, and asked, “Yes?”

“Definitely yes,” Becca said and leaned in again, but Kelly put a hand up to halt her.

“Are you sure this isn’t a fake it ‘til you make it kinda thing again?”

“Very sure.” But Kelly still looked hesitant, and the truth was, she deserved a better answer than that. Becca sighed. “I promise I won’t do that to you. I can’t promise anything else. Maybe, somewhere down the road, I’ll discover that I don’t like it anymore. But if I do, I’ll tell you. And it’s not now. I’m loving this.”

Kelly smiled, the broad, beaming smile that always made everything better. “Me too,” she said and kissed Becca’s temple before murmuring in her ear: “Okay, then. One step at a time.”

* * *

  
  


It was a half hour later that Becca returned home. The house was dark and quiet, so she kicked off her shoes and padded into the bedroom, careful not to wake Eden up.

The lamp by Sam’s bed was still on, and he was lying on his stomach with a book by his side, though it was face-down and in some danger of falling to the floor. His eyes were closed, but the hand he held down into Eden’s crib was still stroking her little chest.

Becca sat down at the foot of his bed, which made him roll over and blink at her, roused by the motion. At the sight of her face, he smiled.

“What?” she asked, though she knew what. The grin on her face seemed permanently stuck there.

“Good movie?” he signed.

“I have no idea.”

“What?”

“Turns out that… I’m kinda… into girls.”

Sam’s mouth opened in surprise, and then he laughed. “Are you telling me we need to double the number of rainbows in our little rainbow family?”

“Apparently we do,” she said with a giggle.

He sat up, pulled her close, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Welcome to the club. I’ll make you a merit badge.”


End file.
